Skip to content
LeadAfrik
Mixed · Self-paced2026 Edition

Bonds — All You Need to Know

The deepest market in finance, taught from first principles. Price, yield, duration, convexity, the yield curve, term-structure theory, repo and funding, credit spreads, ratings, government bonds, corporate bonds, securitisation, inflation linkers, callable and convertible structures, eurobonds, sovereign restructurings, and the bond-market plumbing that anchors every other asset price.

12

Modules

~10h 20m

Reading time

Mixed

Level

Self-paced

Format

§

Syllabus

  1. 01

    What a bond is

    A promise to pay coupons and return principal on a fixed schedule. The mental model: future cash flows discounted at a risk-appropriate rate.

    ~40 minModule 01
    →
  2. 02

    Price and yield — the inverse relationship

    Why bond prices fall when yields rise. Yield to maturity, current yield, running yield. The discounting maths every fixed-income desk uses.

    ~50 minModule 02
    →
  3. 03

    Duration and convexity

    Macaulay duration, modified duration, effective duration. Why convexity adds a positive second-order kicker. The single most-used risk measure in fixed income.

    ~55 minModule 03
    →
  4. 04

    The yield curve and term structure

    Normal, flat, inverted. The three classic theories (expectations, liquidity preference, market segmentation). Why an inversion has predicted every US recession since 1955.

    ~55 minModule 04
    →
  5. 05

    Repo, reverse repo, and the funding markets

    How dealers fund their bond inventories overnight. GC vs specials, haircuts, the role of the Fed's RRP facility. The plumbing that breaks first when stress hits.

    ~50 minModule 05
    →
  6. 06

    Government bonds — Treasuries, gilts, KES T-bills

    How sovereigns issue: primary auctions, on-the-run vs off-the-run, the Treasury cycle. Kenya's T-bill / T-bond market run by CBK. The largest, deepest, most liquid markets in finance.

    ~50 minModule 06
    →
  7. 07

    Corporate bonds — IG, HY, covenants

    Investment-grade vs high-yield. Indentures, covenants, seniority, security. Spread to benchmark as the price of credit risk. The market that connects companies to global savings.

    ~55 minModule 07
    →
  8. 08

    Credit spreads and rating agencies

    How spreads decompose into expected loss, risk premium, and liquidity premium. Moody's, S&P, Fitch — how they rate and how the market disagrees.

    ~50 minModule 08
    →
  9. 09

    Callable, putable, convertible, inflation-linked

    Embedded options. Negative convexity in callables. Why TIPS / linkers transfer inflation risk. Convertible bonds as bond + equity option.

    ~55 minModule 09
    →
  10. 10

    Securitisation — MBS, ABS, CLOs

    Pooling and tranching cash flows. Mortgage-backed securities, asset-backed, collateralised loan obligations. What 2008 actually taught us, and what survived.

    ~55 minModule 10
    →
  11. 11

    Eurobonds, frontier sovereigns, restructuring

    African and emerging-market eurobonds. The 2022-24 sudden stop. Common Framework restructurings (Zambia, Ghana, Chad). What sovereign distress looks like in practice.

    ~55 minModule 11
    →
  12. 12

    Bond portfolio management

    Active vs passive. Duration management, sector rotation, credit selection, immunisation. The buy-side toolkit and the institutions (PIMCO, BlackRock, central banks, pension funds) that move the market.

    ~50 minModule 12
    →

How to use this course

Start with module 01 if the material is new; skip ahead if you have prior exposure. Each module is self-contained but the arc is sequential — the projects in the final module assume the toolkit from modules 1-11. Every module ends with key takeaways and a curated further-reading list with primary sources.